No Strange Gods Before Me

By Fred Vilbig

When most modern Americans think about idols, we probably think about the golden calf Aaron made while the Hebrews were waiting for Moses to come off of Mount Sinai. Or maybe the gods of ancient Egypt like Anubis with the head of a dog; Bastet with the head of a cat; Horus with the head of a hawk; and the list can go on. Or maybe we think about the more humanized gods of Greece, who had all too human failings. I think most modern Americans would argue that they do not worship idols.

But I think they would be wrong. First we need to define what we mean by worship. We can look at worship as a reverence offered to a divine being, but I don’t think that gets us very far. We should look at worship by looking at how we spend our time and talents and energy. If we spend most of our time on something, I would argue that whatever that is, you are in a sense, offering your life for it. To me, that is what it means to worship something. What are you spending your life pursuing?

The Uncomfortable Parachute

I was told this story once. I still don’t get on a plane without it’s message creeping back into my mind……

There were two men. Both riding on a airplane. The first man, a flight attendant walks up and hands him a parachute. She says, “This is for ‘Flight Enhancement’, it will make your flight more enjoyable.” The man puts on the parachute. It’s heavy. Cumbersome. It causes him to sweat. He looks around the cabin, and realizes that no one else is wearing one. Why does he have one on? The plane hits some turbulence. He realizes this parachute is not making his flight any better, so he takes it off.

The second man, the flight attendant hands him the parachute and says, “This is your parachute. At some point during this flight, you will have to jump out of this plane at 25,000 feet. You won’t know when it going to happen.” The man quickly puts on the parachute. He understands its purpose. It’s heavy and uncomfortable. It causes him to sweat, but he doesn’t mind. He looks around and sees that most of the other passengers aren’t wearing parachutes, and this concerns him greatly. Nothing you could say could get him to take off that parachute, because he knows what it’s for. It’s his only hope if he is going to make it.

During this time of Lent, we must ask ourselves, "What is the purpose of my faith life?"

The Hard Places

Once again Lent is upon us, so I will ask the standard question - "What are you giving up?"

I've been 'giving up' something now for about 40 years. Early on I would give up chocolate, or gum, or some other candy. As I got older I would give up beer (Karen loves to point out that I would still drink other forms of alcohol), or TV. One time I asked my brother-in-law what he was giving up for lent, and he told me "leaning up against the wall in an elevator." Perplexed, I asked him "Are you in elevators often?" His reply - "No"

If I am honest, most of those Lents have been totally and completely fruitless. My commitment to my Lenten promise, silly as it was, would fade after a week or 2 and the whole experience would be lost. Easter would arrive, and my focus would be on the eggs (or more importantly the candy or money inside them), or after my kids were born on their experience.  Even after I started to value my faith more in my 30's, the pulls and tugs of 'life' kept my focus well outside where Christ would have liked it to be during this season of purification.

Lent is a time where Christ asks us to go into the desert - into the hard places. The things we sacrifice and the fasting that is prescribed are tools the church gives to help build within us the discipline needed to move away from our comfortable, complacent lives and towards the light that will expose the brokenness within all of us.

Chosen a side, yet? ... you know there's a third?

In 1959, assigned to a French Army peace keeping force, Christian de Cherge was stationed in Algeria to assist in maintaining civility between French colonizing Christians and native Muslims.  Forming a friendship with an influential Muslim policeman, Mohammed, de Cherge and he often took conversational walks to understand politics, theology, and culture in the area.  De Cherge shared this story of one of their conversations:

            Mohammed made a habit of coming to talk with de Cherge regularly.  One day, the policeman found a particular situation for which he called the Frenchman to respond ….  “It’s been a long time since we’ve dug our well!”

De Cherge teased him, asking, “And at the bottom of our well, what will we find?  Muslim water or Christian water?”

Mohammed looked somewhat amused and somewhat apologetic.  “Come on now, we’ve spent all this time walking together, and you’re still asking me this question!  You know very well that at the bottom of that well, what we’ll find is God’s water!”

Christian and Muslim relations remained tense.  On another of their walks, Algerian rebels ambushed the two men.  Mohammed stepped between the rebels and his French military friend.  “He is a godly man.  Leave him alone.”  The rebels let both men pass.

The next day, Mohammed’s murdered body lay displayed in the street. 

Mohammed’s life changed de Cherge.  After his military tour concluded, de Cherge returned to his home country, France, entered a Trappist monastery, pursued ordination, and returned to Algeria eventually as an abbot.  “De Cherge made decisions that his superiors saw as unusual, even unwise.  Instead of proselytizing, he offered the locals employment, medical care and lessons in literacy and French.  He also organized an annual interfaith summit to promote Muslim-Christian dialogue. He even invited Muslims to stay at the compound of Notre-Dame de Atlas, his monastery.” [something of value today, perhaps a PX90 undertaking?]

In 1996, Muslim extremists, GIA, kidnapped de Cherge and six of his fellow monks.  The GIA held them as hostage collateral against failed French negotiations before beheading them. What makes people so unkind on a human spectrum of such degradation and ferocity?  de Cherge and his monastic order only promoted peace. 

Ugliness, fear in the world seems to be growing.  More and more people are choosing to belong to a side … to accuse or to blame … choosing to fragment societies.  People invite media to regurgitate the violence, the rhetoric, the greed back to us in a feeding frenzy.  Fundamentalists and extremists drive evil often in the name of a Supreme Being.  I wonder how many folks agree with de Cherge’s superiors:  the abbot’s actions were unwise and meddling.  Living in fear, Algerians largely polarized into two camps, Muslim and Christian.   However! Mohammed and de Cherge offered a third more tiring, more enduring option of dialogue, patience, and understanding.  Yet, Muslims killed … not only Christians, but Muslims as well, … just as Christians had historically done to each other.

Today, ISIS and other extremists are not only killing Christians, but Muslims as well.  In our own country, Christians are polarizing on gun laws, immigration, quality of life, gay marriage, universal healthcare, socio-economic issues, etc.  Rather than working together, attempting to host civil exchanges, accusations isolate people and sadly, Christians are killing Christians among others.    

No humane faith of God inspired by their guiding texts, the Bible, Koran, or Torah, etc … promote and defend violence and cruelty.  Extremism defends itself with literalism, the lowest level of understanding engaging the greatest level of fear to impose its influence.  Fear polarizes societies.  If left untreated, fear spreads like an infected wound.  Fear justifies judgement.  Too many media sites sell fear and profit on ugliness to generate further false markets of “belonging to the justified.”  Unfortunately, accusations, negativity unite fear-based groups far more quickly than love does.  Egos establish superiority over scapegoats, those to blame for the world’s woes.  In my opinion, many religions have circled their wagons to protect beliefs from “outsiders” rather than inviting and dialoguing with the stranger.  So many people genuinely desire this engagement, but fear ridicule rather than welcome. 

Make no mistake, there are parties committing evil, heinous acts.  Jesus’ ministry demonstrated peace, compassion, mercy, integrity, honesty, acceptance … all in the goodness, the generosity of the Father.  He called people to live these qualities beyond the walls of their homes out into community.   De Cherge and his small band of monks went out among the people.  Cultures need to be uniting, building up.  Whether intentional or not, too many people are fleeing churches by the association of a few isolated individuals projecting ugly actions.  At the same time, far too many people are entering mega-churches to receive their dose of “feel-good” so they can “check” weekly obligations to continue to move through their lives without investigating the societal challenges that exist.

 Literalism, paranoia, extremism, fear, all limit God to some fictional character rather than an awesome loving God!  Don’t fear.  Fundamentally :-), I write to inform there are, by far, many, many more caring, generous, thoughtful people among us than evil fracturing bodies!

PS.  If you’ve not seen the film, Of Gods and Men, I recommend it as a humbling retreat.  Who are you among the 7 monks.  I’d imagine a bit of each!  The closing scenes resonated with me as I imagined Jesus’ dynamics when he healed the high priest’s servant’s severed ear at the Garden before being led away by the guards, yet another polarized group.  (Luke 22:47-53)